Sherd Stories (Vanilla Tales)

Gives every decorated pot a title and the story of where its sherds were found.

The title comes only from the sherd combination; the find location sticks to the sherd from the moment you brush it out.

Versions: 1.20.1, 1.21.1, 1.21.8

Loader: Fabric, Forge (1.20.1); Fabric, NeoForge (1.21.1, 1.21.8)

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Requirements

• On Fabric you need Fabric API. On Forge or NeoForge you do not.
• Server-side: install it on the server (or in singleplayer). Players do not need it, and vanilla clients can join without it.
• Languages: English and German. German shows for players who have the mod installed (for example in singleplayer); vanilla clients without the mod see English.

What it does

• Brushing a sherd out of suspicious sand or gravel remembers which structure it came from.
• Crafting a pot from sherds gives it a title built from the four sherd motifs, for example "The Archer Who Guarded the Harvest".
• The pot's tooltip always lists a find line for each sherd, naming the sherd, the structure and its X, Z position, for example "Archer Pottery Sherd: Trail Ruins at 120, -340".
• Right-click a placed pot with an empty hand to see its title and, for each sherd, where it was found and how far and in which direction, in chat.
• Four sherds from the same structure instance give the pot a magic shimmer and unlock the "A Complete Story" advancement.
• Breaking the pot gives the sherds back with their find locations intact.
• Sherds from creative mode or /give still get a title, just no find location.

Advancements

• A Complete Story: craft a pot from four sherds found in the same structure instance.

Configuration

File: sherd_stories.json.

A config file with a syntax error is left untouched: the mod logs the problem and keeps the last working settings instead of overwriting the file with defaults.

Good to know

• Sherds from the desert well have no find location; the well is not a structure on 1.20.1.
• Using a grindstone or renaming the pot on an anvil removes the shimmer.
• Pick-block does not carry the pot's title or find locations, the same as vanilla item pick-block.

Part of VanillaTales

Sherd Stories is part of VanillaTales, a collection of small, independent mods that add little stories to vanilla content. Each mod works on its own; install only the ones you want.

• Zombie Sieges: turns a vanilla zombie siege into a real event, with a ringing bell, a boss bar and two waves of zombies.
• Ghost Crews: gives every shipwreck a name and a crew of drowned that guard it until it is looted clean.
• Illager Scouts: a pillager scout watches your village and warns you two days before a patrol arrives.
• Occupied Villages: some new villages spawn already occupied by an illager garrison you can liberate.
• Bonded Pairs: binds two mobs from the same spawn group into a pair that avenges each other.
• Golem Patrol: gives iron golems a daily patrol, a night watch and an escort for villagers.
• Raid Aftermath: villagers repair the damage a raid or an explosion left in the village.
• Wayfarer's Landmarks: shows a title and helpful icons when you enter a structure.

More mods by LithiumPlus

• DataDrivenVillagers: create and change villager professions from JSON files or an in-game editor.
• VillagersPlus: new villager types, trades and beautiful workstations. Forge version: VillagersPlus (Forge).
• VillagerTradingPlus: add, replace or delete the trades of any villager, change the currency and gate trades behind conditions, all from a datapack.
• Nyctophobia: dark, foggy and unsettling biomes for the Overworld. Forge version: Nyctophobia (Forge).
• The Graveyard (Fabric) and The Graveyard (Forge/NeoForge): structures, mobs, bosses and blocks with a graveyard theme.